Spoilers
by VTCentaurea
Summary: For StormcagePrincess99. A young Eleventh Doctor comes across a life-changing secret about his future. Slightly AU.


_An Egyptian goddess loose on the Orient Express…in space._ The Doctor scoffed. If only it had been that simple. The whole adventure had passed by so quickly that it seemed only a faint memory, but had ended with dropping the Ponds off in Leadworth - with the insisting that they spend time getting their married life started without him, and an unsaid promise of return.

He sat still in his TARDIS, eyes closed to the world as he enjoyed her whirring that surrounded his being while she floated through space. These moments had become rare over the years, where he was left in the comforting embrace of memories. Images of his friends, new and old, spun around his head so clear it was as if they were stuck to the backs of his eyelids; and with them came a relieving happiness as well as an overwhelming sadness.

"_I was supposed to be with you… forever." _The words stuck with him ever since one of his favorite ginger's had uttered them. They pushed their way into his mind every time he was forced to say goodbye.

When the Doctor finally opened his eyes, his vision was clouded with tears. Suddenly, this sacred time alone seemed just that: utterly alone. Standing slowly from his seat, he made his way over to the consol and allowed his tired mind plot random points, knowing that his TARDIS would take him to where he needed to be. With a friend.

They landed shortly, and the Doctor found the energy to practically charge from the blue doors, throwing on a smile to greet whoever the TARDIS had taken him to. However, what he saw was much different than he'd expected. The scene before him was familiar; the Pond House kitchen, which had not changed from when he had left them.

'_Leave,' _his mind gave a shout, but the comfort that this place gave was too strong, and instead he found himself walking boldly forward.

While the house was still the same, the pictures he remembered were different. In place of a family portrait of Amy and her parents, there were ones of a certain blue box.

"Hello, sweetie," came a quiet voice from behind him, sounding sleep deprived, yet cheerful.

"River?" He turned to face her. She stood leaning against the doorframe in what looked to be her night clothes, face alight with a radiant glow that he could not yet place the reason to.

"When you said you would return soon, I did not expect to wait so long, or that it would be at this hour." Her laughter replaced the aching in his hearts with a swelling joy, but the first part of her statement did not go completely unnoticed.

"I was here before, then?"

"Spoilers." River sighed happily, then beckoned him into the next room. "My ankles have been giving me trouble," she explained as they entered the well-furnished living room and she moved to the couch. The moment she sat, her legs followed her onto the cushions and she leaned to rub her (he could now see) swollen ankles. After staring quite awkwardly for a moment, the Doctor finally followed her example and sat on the couch; but instead up bringing up his own legs, he reached over and took hers into his lap, examining and lightly rubbing at the swollen areas.

"What happened?" He asked, not pausing in his ministrations.

"Nothing, sweetie." She brushed off his question. "It is just a part of life."

He turned his head again to give her an incredulous look, but paused about halfway up, something catching his eye that he had not noticed before. His mind raced once more, but refused to land on what he knew was the truth. A hand reached forward on its own accord and landed on the bulge of her stomach. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, her hand came up to cover his and her smile turned warm as her eyes searched his face for any sign of emotion.

"You're….?"

"Yes," she responded breathlessly.

Waves of jealousy shot through him instantly and, without thinking, a word flew from his mouth that he instantly regretted. "Who?"

Hurt shown in River's eyes as she removed her hand, but as the Doctor's eyes also clouded with an emotion he knew that she would understand, she gave a small smile and said once more, "Yes." Happiness surged through them both as they could only hope that the other heard the unspoken words.

Before long however, the Doctor's joy soon turned to a stronger memory than any of the ones he had had previously and they caused an overwhelming dread. There had been a time years before that he had that same joyous urge to cry and shout his happiness to the stars when his wife had told him about their first child. That same child that had died with the rest of his kind, along with its mother.

His eyes drifted up to her face and he opened his mouth to warn her of the horrible possibilities, but the look she gave him stopped him mid-thought. His worried faded into a corner of his mind that he was sure he would visit at a later date, but he gave his unborn child a silent promise that he would protect it from any harm that tried itself on any of them.

His many thoughts were interrupted as River removed her legs from his lap and leaned against him, sighing in contentment as the Doctor instinctively lifted his arm and placed it around her shoulders. There would be no more loneliness that evening.


End file.
